Alicia Caraballo, Adult Education Director for the New Haven Board of Education, left, is hugged by Attorney General Eric Holder after Caraballo shared the loss of her son n to gun violence in New Haven, Conn. during a press conference Tuesday, November 27, 2012 at the United States Attorney District of Connecticut Office in New Haven announcing the launch of Project Longevity, an initiative to reduce gun violence in Connecticut's major cities. At far right is United States Attorney for Connecticut David Fein. Photo by Peter Hvizdak / New Haven Register

NEW HAVEN -- City gang members have been put on notice: If you "drop a body," the full weight of New Haven police and its state and federal partners will focus on you -- and all of your associates as well.

At a press conference attended by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney's office announced the launch of Project Longevity, an anti-violence initiative modeled after Boston's CeaseFire program, and its plans to roll it out in Hartford and Bridgeport. Moving forward, the effort will be replicated in cities across the state.

"Project Longevity will send a powerful message to those who would harm their fellow citizens: that such acts will not be tolerated; that they will be swiftly met with clear, predictable consequences; and that help is available for all those who wish to break the cycle of violence and gang activity," Holder said.

The program went "live" Monday night after a year of preparation to identify gangs in New Haven and, more importantly, their members, the people most willing to pick up a gun and use it.

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Gang members from two neighborhoods, Newhallville and Dwight, were summoned to separate meetings Monday in the basement of the Hall of Records. Law enforcement was there in force but so were clergy, social service providers and community leaders.

"We're all telling them in one voice that the gun violence has got to stop," said New Haven Assistant Police Chief Archie Generoso. "We're telling you ahead of time. If one of your associates, one of your crew, decides to shoot somebody or commits a homicide, we're going after each and every member of that group."

There was a carrot to go along with the stick, however. With that message came a pledge from authorities to help the people who want to make the right choice.

The framework of the initiative, which helped reduce gun violence in Boston, Cincinnati and Chicago, is straight forward. It's based on the philosophy and work of criminologist David Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Summon known gang members to an intervention and clearly lay out the new rules of engagement. If you shoot someone, kill someone, your gang will earn the full and undivided attention and resources of law enforcement, local, state and federal. They will not only go after the shooter but all members of the gang.

It is self-selective and based on the idea of "group accountability."

"The first person that shoots and drops a body, they're making the choice of who we focus our attention on. We're not making the choice," Generoso said.

But the concept also has a carrot. A dozen local social service providers are collaborating with the program to provide help with housing, education, addiction, job counseling and placement.

If a gang member is looking to make a change, the agencies have pledged to move him to the top of the list and provide the support to help him change.

"We represent the hope in this project," said Barbara Tinney, the director of the New Haven Family Alliance and co-chair of the community service component in Project Longevity.

"We know that the roots of gun violence run deep. We also know we can't arrest our way out of this disastrous situation," Tinney said.

For much of the last year, law enforcement has been gather intelligence, identifying individual gangs in the city and compiling a comprehensive list of known gang members and associates.

Authorities have worked with academics from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Yale University, University of New Haven and the University of Cincinnati to analyze the data.

Here were the findings: There are 19 active gangs in New Haven with nearly 600 members.

That figure didn't surprise Kennedy. Research shows that in "hot" neighborhoods about five percent of young males between 15 and 25 years old have a gang affiliation on some level. And perhaps 10 to 20 percent of them drive the violence.

"As intolerable as this problem is, it is a vanishingly small number of people that make it happen," he said. And data shows the CeaseFire model works, he said.

Chicago is struggling with its highest homicide rate in years in 2012. When the bulge in gun violence peaked, shootings were up by nearly 40 percent from the previous year. But in the two busiest police precincts where CeaseFire was implemented, violence had decreased by 37 percent, Kennedy said.

What's unique about the effort in Connecticut is a pledge to make Operation Longevity a statewide effort. It kicked off in New Haven but authorities in Bridgeport and Hartford will soon roll out versions.

"This project has the potential to be a national model," said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

Connecticut, following a national trend, is enjoying one of its lowest crime rates in decades, said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, with one exception: gun violence in its major cities.

Of the 129 homicides last year, 94 of them took place in New Haven, Bridgeport or Hartford. They almost always involve men of color, he said.

"We agree that no strategy will be effective without the support of the community. This means parent, clergy, neighborhood leaders, grandmothers, grandfather, aunts, uncles -- everyone working toward one goal," Malloy said.

"We've all been to too many hospitals, too many wakes, too many funerals," New Haven Chief Dean Esserman said at the press conference.

The two call-ins happened two hours apart. Of the 25 gang members, all were either on probation or parole. Their attendance wasn't optional.

Officials explained the rules of the new world. Community members spoke.

Alicia Caraballo, the principal at New Haven adult education, spoke of losing her 24-year-old son Justin Davis to gun violence in 2008. There was a confrontation at a nightclub. The gunman waited for them on County Street and shot Davis and another man to death.

Every time someone is killed in New Haven, it's a reminder of her son's death. Every holiday. Every wedding, she said.

She attended the sentencing of her son's killer.

"He got 100 years. He will never leave prison. He will live and die in jail. And this is what will happen to you," Caraballo said.